Renovated Classic Theaters

Back when I was in college, I got my first taste of a classic theater that had been renovated into a current movie house (unless you count the Coronado, but I don’t because they don’t show movies there). The first time I went was with a few friends to see the limited release movie, Bubba Ho-Tep. It was showing at the Castle Theater in Bloomington, IL (here’s their site). The movie was good, but the experience was something amazing. Not only did we get the great architecture of the theater, it had been set-up so that there were comfortable couches and chairs. Also, there is a full service menu for food. The pizza we had was quite good. The experience sparked a love of classic theaters in me.

From that point on, the castle’s website was one I would check weekly. I found that they often showed more independent movies that I wanted to see. So, I started go to more movies there. Then towards the end of my college run, The Castle started showing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

The first night it was showing, I took the drive over. I was by myself, as I usually was when it came to movie watching in college. I parked and started walking to the theater. I noted that the temperature was nice and it was a lovely night out. I got my ticket and walked in. I soaked up the atmosphere of the theater and then the movie started. As you may know, ESOTSM is one of the greatest movies of all time; so, needless to say, I enjoyed the movie. The movie ended and I took my time walking back to my car. Enjoying every moment and reflecting on the movie. It was one of the best nights ever. All the things the movies are supposed to be.

Flash forward to today. I currently work at a bank that shares an intersection with a classic theater. The Polk Theater is another classic theater that shows movies as well as other venues through out the year. Most of the films they show are documentaries or small independent films. As anywhere, some of the films are good and some are bad, but to experience the greatness of a renovated theater like the Polk is always amazing.

Overall, I like the Polk a little better than the Castle. The Polk has a larger number of seats than the Castle, even though the Polk’s aren’t nearly as comfortable. The Polk’s architecture is more brilliant; it is similar to the Coronado in that it has a Mediterranean design with the stars in the ceiling. The Polk brings you back to the olden days of the theaters even further by playing an organ before the movie starts (they mix in some familiar songs from people like Elvis). Also, the Polk’s balcony is an absolute must. You get the best view in the house and the upper lobby is modeled so that it is new but it keeps the retro look. A very romantic area for movie freaks.

With these theaters sparking my imagination, I have often desired to renovate and reopen an old theater. Right now, I don’t have the resources (who does?) but somebody I’d really like to reopen a theater. I could be Jim Carey in The Majestic…except, you know, I would actually provide entertainment to people.

I have even gone as far as to look up theaters that have been closed on the internet. Cinematreasures.com is one of the websites I look at occasionally. I have actually found several possible options. The Times theater in Rockford, IL is one where it is currently closed and nothing is occupying the building. But I would need several things before leaping into the business.

I’d need a business plan that specifies if we were going to be non-profit (Ala The Polk) or for profit (ala The Castle) and how we would conduct business. I would have to look at the costs to renovate the building and operate the theater. I would have to develop a pricing and marketing strategy. I would have to take this information and decide whether the business could be profitable (or break even if non-profit).

Would it be worth it? For most people, it would not, but for me I have to think about it. I have work at theaters before and loved it. I have a deep love of movies. I’d like to provide entertainment to people (especially in an entertainment starved town like Rockford).

As it stands right now, my dream of owning a theater is on level with my dream of playing professional baseball. The difference here is that the time-line for accomplishing my feat is a lot longer which lets me work at it longer. The more work I can put in, the better prepared I will be. Maybe someday in the future, I’ll be standing at a ticket counter decked out in a suit greeting customers as they enter the theater.

Until then, I will continue to frequent other theaters and dream.

What to do with a 401(k) after leaving a job.

I wrote a column a while back in which I talked about trying to set-up a 401(k) for a company while working for a previous employer. I’ve noticed that a few people have come to that blog by way of a search for what to with a 401(k) after they leave an employer. On wordpress, it shows search terms used to find your blogs (i.e. I’ve gotten several “401(k) after I’ve left work.”). So, I have decided to make a blog helpful to those people.

When you leave a job where you have a 401(k) set up, you really only have three choices as to what to do with the funds.

If you have found a new job, you can roll over your old 401(k) into your new 401(k). I did this a little over a year ago. The way I did it was the following steps:

1) Establish a 401(k) at your new employer.

2) Contact both your new 401(k) plan administrator and your old 401(k) administrator. They will let you know if you need any paperwork and will provide you with it if necessary.

3) Have your old 401(k) issue a check to you for deposit into your new 401(k) plan.

4) Send the check to your new 401(k) provider.

I also recommend keeping in contact with both administrators until the funds have been deposited in your new 401(k).

The second method would be to take the funds out of your 401(k) and put it into another retirement vehicle (ex. IRA or annuity).

This works similarly to the 401(k) to 401(k) rollover, but instead of setting up the new 401(k) at a new employer, you set up an IRA/Annuity at an investment firm (most banks have an investment side now. So, you could set it up at you local bank. If you already have an IRA open, you can just move the funds directly over. The steps for you to follow are:

1) Open up the IRA/Annuity (if you don’t have one open).

2) Contact the 401(k) administrator and let them know what you want to do. They’ll give any forms if they require them.

3) The 401(k) company will issue a check. You can either have it mailed directly to yourself or to the investment company where your IRA is held. Make sure you have your account number referenced if mailing directly to an investment firm.

4) Deposit the check into your IRA (the investment firm will mark this check as a direct rollover from a 401(k).

This is the way most people handle their funds upon retirement. It is also the basis for most Financial Advisors’ business.

The other option you have with your old 401(k) is to cash out the account. Before you go ahead and do this, you NEED to talk to a tax account to find out if there will be any tax penalties with this move. The way you would do this is:

1) Contact the old 401(k) administrator and have them issue a check to you.

2) Take the check to your local bank and deposit it.

Let me reiterate that there could be some harsh tax penalties associated with this method and you should discuss it with a tax account before going ahead with the move.

So, that should give anyone looking for 401(k) advice something to go off of. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment field and I’ll answer them with in a reasonable time.  Thanks!

Spam Comments?

I was flipping through my WordPress dashboard and noticed something called Spam Comments.

I got curious and clicked on the link. It turns out that spammers have posted comments on my blog with links to their websites. Mostly the websites were for porn (at least that’s what the URLs would suggest. I didn’t click on any links.). Some of them were for pharmaceuticals. All of them were idiotic (i.e. Nice site and then a list of links to their bullshit).

My first reaction to all this is that WordPress is pretty badass. I don’t have to worry about some moron throwing out a bunch of links in my comments section. WordPress just takes these and corrals them into a spam folder. There I can delete them or if it turns out that one of them isn’t spam, I can adjust it so that it does get posted. All of this for the low, low price of zero dollars (or yen, pounds, euro, etc.).

My next thought was, “there is spam comments?” I honestly had no clue. I knew about spam e-mail (who doesn’t?). But, I had never thought of spamming a blogs comment section. And honestly, has spam ever worked to get anyone to try any product? I didn’t think so.

My third thought is, “does this mean my blog is getting more popular?” I mean if people are taking time to post comments to advertise, it means two things. First, they have found my blog some how. Which means my word has spread at least past my group of friends and family that steadily read my blog. Second, these spammers are posting spam in order for other people to see it. Would they post it on a site that only a small number of people view or do they just go for the targets that’ll give them the most exposure? If I was a spammer, I’d go for the blogs with the higher view tallies.

Anyway, if anyone needs a link to buy drugs for ED, I can’t help you (I deleted all the spam, sorry). But don’t worry, I’m sure the idiots will try to post more links. So, if you need any, send me a message letting me know. I’ll hook you up with the link.

The Death of Ebay

Back when I was in high school (late ’90s), we had this website called EBay. It was an amazing place where people could buy and sell lightly used or new items. Everyone participated in some fashion, whether they just bought, just sold, or did both, and they enjoyed it. It became THE hub of Internet shopping. Now, EBay is basically dead. What happened?

Yes, the website is still up and running, but I don’t know of anyone who actually uses it anymore. Take a look at any given auction on the site. Unless it is a really high demand/low supply product (ex. Nintendo Wii or PS3), the auction will have 0 to 5 bids at best. This is still better than other auction websites. Take a look at ubid.com. Pick any category and the have the auctions ending with in an hour listed. The majority of these auctions will have 0 bids on them. EBay is doing a little better than them, but the popularity has definitely waned. So, why are there few bids being placed on auctions now?

The biggest factor (in my opinion) has been the improvement of on-line shopping as a whole. Now a days, most major companies offer some sort of shipping discount with your purchase (ex. Amazon free shipping). Also, websites such as Froogle and MySimon have given consumers an option to find the best price on a new item. As these sites came up, it became increasingly easy to find the best deal possible. The moreinformation available the more educated consumers’ decisions are. With these sites providing cost information instantly on any product, the consumers are making better shopping choices.

The second factor in the decline of EBay/auction websites is the sellers’ high shipping rates. With the aforementioned improvement of on-line retail, a lot of large companies are offering either free shipping or a low priced option. On eBay, everything is going in the opposite direction. It seems to me that the sellers’ figured they could increase their profit by charging extra on shipping (ex. a Mario Kart DS game on EBay has shipping costs of about $10 whereas the same game and shipping costs $2.99 at other on-line retailers on MySimon). So, the buyers initial are attracted to the low price EBay option, but they have realized that the sellers’ charge too much for shipping. In turn, the buyers take their money elsewhere.

Another factor in the fall of EBay is the disreputable sellers. EBay does have the feedback option, but what I’m talking about here is the sellers who post hundreds of spam-like items. Things like “Find the Lowest Price on Nintendo Wii!!1″ auctions that are for $0.01. Thus clogging up the website when all you want is to find the lowest auction out there for a Wii. Customers have to cycle through multiple pages of the exact same auction (same titling, price, and information). This makes the use of EBay marginal and gives consumers incentive to find the products on amazon.com (or whatever traditional commerce site you prefer).

There are most likely a lot of other factors contributing to the death of the auctions, but regardless, the time is drawing to a close on these once mighty websites.

I, for one, used to do a lot of shopping on EBay, but have not used the website in over 3 years.

Warriors – Pacers 8 Player Trade

The word over on ESPN.com is that the Golden State Warriors and Indiana Pacers have made an 8 player trade (Here’s the story).  According to the story, the Golden State Warriors are sending Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy Jr., Ike Diogu, and Keith McLeod to the Pacers in return for Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, Sarunas Jasikevicious, and Josh Powell.

At first glance, I thought the Warriors were getting robbed, but the stats show otherwise. Harrington and Jackson are two of Indiana’s top threescorers (15 and 14 ppg respectively). When compared to the averages for Murphy and Dunleavy, they are big improvement to say the least. In addition Harrington will hopefully bring a little post defense help that the Warriors sorely need. The only issue on the Warriors’ side would be the baggage that Jackson brings over with him. If the team can gel and keep him in check then the Warriors could become a force. But what about the Pacers?

The Pacers seem to be getting a raw deal on this trade. Murphy has been hampered by a sore heel all year and was pretty much useless for the Warriors. Dunleavy was doing a solid job as the Warriors’ sixth man, but not someone you would want to trade a couple of your top scorers for. Ike Diogu didn’t fit in with the Warrior high tempo offense, so he got little playing time. Keith McLeod is a serviceable third point guard. Really, the only rationale I can figure out is that the Pacers were dying to get rid of Jackson and all the trouble he has brought. I nice side effect of this trade is that Marquis Daniels might actually get a little playing time with the Pacers now.

Let’s check out the new projected starting line-ups:

Warriors

C – Andris Biedrins

PF – Al Harrington

SF – Stephen Jackson

SG – Jason Richardson (once he heals his broken hand)

PG – Baron Davis

That is a pretty solid 5 that is athletic enough to play Nellie-ball, but will also play some defense. This also allows Mickael Pietrus, Monta Ellis, and Matt Barnes to be forces off the pine.

Pacers

C – Jermaine O’Neal

PF – Troy Murphy

SF – Mike Dunleavy

SG – Marquis Daniels

PG – Jamaal Tinsley

This line-up looks kind of like the Warriors of last year. Needless to say, it probably won’t be pretty for them. The line-up might actually feature Danny Granger at starting SF and Dunleavy coming off the bench. That makes the line-up a little better but it looks like the Pacers are cutting losses on this season and looking towards next (which makes no sense with them being above .500, but I’m not the VP of Common Sense for the team, so what do I know?).

3 Godfathers Review and more

As a member of Netflix, I enjoy a list of movies recommended based on my previous ratings (I’ve rated over 2500 movies on Netflix). Some of the movies Netflix has been suggesting to me have been John Wayne movies. As strange as this may sound, I have never seen a John Wayne movie (well, I never had until yesterday [1/15/07]). One movie that was highly recommended to me is called “3 Godfathers.”

I was flipping through the On Demand channels of my digital cable box and saw one labelled “Free Movies On Demand.” So, I turned it on figuring it would have a very few movies that I have no interest in seeing. To my surprise there were actually quite a large number of movies on there (probably 30 or so). Included in the titles were all three LOTR movies, Dr. Strangelove, and 3 Godfathers. Seeing as though the latter title was on my Netflix queue for a while, I figured I’d give it a try out (I also checked out Dr. Strangelove, but I’ll get to that later).

The 3 Godfathers starts of great. There are three outlaws in the wild west. The leader of which was John Wayne (naturally). They ride into to town (Welcome, Arizona) and rob the local bank. They get chased out to the desert surrounding the city. The get to a known water oasis and come to find out that it is dried up (due to some bonehead rookie mistakes by a first time traveler). While at this spot, the 3 outlaws find a lady who is giving birth to a baby (By the way, the lady looks like Rachel Dratch [gross]). The lady  goes all Gertrude Trinke (yeah, I just dropped in a Jersey Girl reference). Now the three outlaws are left to raise a baby in the middle of a desert with out water. This does lead to some comedic moments but the movie completely derails and becomes all religious and non-entertaining. It got to the point where I actually ended up falling asleep through about 30 minutes of film time. It was really rough. Which led me to try and think of any other movies that started off good/great and at some point completely derailed into a huge mess of a second half.

1) Full Metal Jacket -

Stanley Kubrick’s so called “Masterpiece.” I watched this in college and dug the first 30 minutes or so. All the scenes in boot camp make the movie worth while. Then out of nowhere we are in Vietnam and the movie goes into all out crap mode. Outside of 3 Godfathers, this is the height of mid-movie debacles.

2) Eyes Wide Shut -

Stanley Kubrick’s far from “Masterpiece.” It starts off with a great amount of intrigue (what the hell is this secret society? Where’s all the nudity that is supposed to be in the movie?). Then you slowly realize that the movie has no plot and no point. The society is completely meaningless and to make things worse you get stuck watching Nicole Kidman try to act (yikes).

3) Stripes -

I’ve tried to fight off putting this classic on the list, but it just plays out a little too much like Full Metal Jacket. Everything up through the boot camp scenes are great, but the movie tails off when they shift to war time activities. I still enjoy the second half, but it is weak when compared to the first half.

4) Starship Troopers-

This movie has a cool beginning and has quite a bit of action. Then all of the sudden, they force the main guy to hook up with Denise Richards (never a good idea, just ask Charlie) and they kill off the hottie redhead. Also, The pretty much write out Neil Patrick Harris’ character until the end. That’s pretty rough.

Are there any movies that I’ve missed that you think start off on a high note and then fall apart somewhere in the middle?

Touching back on Dr. Strangelove. This movie has always been hyped up as one of (if not the) greatest comedies of all time. We’ve all heard the line, “You can’t fight in here, this is the war room.” Which, I’ll admit, is a good line and pretty humorous. So, I tried to watch the movie on demand. I ended up getting about 20 minutes into it and had to shut it off. The movie just wasn’t funny. Maybe if the movie was being pitched to me as a regular movie I could have lasted longer. But 20 minutes of a comedy and not a single joke? I’m not going to put up with that. Hmm, maybe I should have relabelled this blog, “I Hate Kubrick Movies” or something like that.

On a different subject, I bought a basketball yesterday. I went to Sports Authority and they a good selection, but the only price the had posted was $99.99 for an “official” NBA basketball (you know, the microfiber ones that the NBA is no longer using). So, I grabbed one I liked and brought it over to some guy stocking. Luckily, he told me it was $20 (I would have hated to keep coming to him with b-balls until I found one in my price range). So, now I have a ball that I can use on the apartment complex’ hoop. (By the way, the court is pretty nice. It has the out-of-bounds, free throw, three point, and lane lines already on the court. Not to mention that the court with in 100 feet of my apartment. The only downside is that on the left wing there are a few small pot holes. All in all it’s a pretty nice luxury that I’m just now utilizing). So, I got out there and played for about 30 minutes yesterday and I was pretty bad (I did have a stretch where I went 3/4 from the left wing behind the arc). But that is pretty much what I expected because I haven’t played in over a year now. I plan on planning at least once a week, maybe twice. My goal right now is to work on my shooting stroke (i.e. don’t shoot from the hip) [by the way, I've achieved my first working out goal - run a mile in under 10 minutes. I can now do that with regularity]. So, it’s just a matter of time before I’m rippin’ the twine like I know what I’m doing (in other words, I’m coming up to Rockford sometime in the June-July time period. Let’s get a game together. No, not on Chris’ wedding day, maybe the weekend before or the week leading up to it, though).

Consumer Economics of Dodger Stadium

Yesterday (1/11/07), the Los Angeles Dodgers announced a new ticket option. For $40/person on game day, you can get a seat in the Right Field Pavilion and eat all the hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, pop corn, and sodas they can handle. See the ESPN article here. This pricing strategy got me to think whether the consumers would actually benefit from the pricing strategy.

First, let’s take a look at the type of seating you get. According to the Dodgers’ official website, you can get an equivalent seat (Left Field Pavilion) for $10 on game day. 

Now we can calculate out how many dollars a spectator would need to spend on concessions to make the all-you-can-eat plan worthwhile. We start with the $40 and subtract the cost of the seats ($10). This gives us $30 that the fan is paying for the all-you-can-eat privilages.

So, the fan will have to eat $30 or more of concessions in order to make the deal worth it. Let’s see how that breaks down:

According to one article I read on ESPN, the average fan purchases $12.30 worth of concessions during any given game. In this scenario, the amount of concessions consumed would be of lesser value than the $30 extra cost of the ticket. The problem with this is that people would have incentive to eat more in the all-you-can-eat situation. So, the average amount eaten would go up in value and throw off this rationale. So, let’s look at specific examples to see if it is feasible.

I couldn’t find the price of concessions online for Dodger Stadium so most of these numbers are estimates.

Hot Dog (foot long) = $4.50 – This number was confirmed with an internet search.

Soda = $3.50

Nachos = $4.00

Popcorn = $3.00

Peanuts = $3.00

With these estimates, we can figure out exactly how much food a fan would have to eat to get value out of the tickets.

Example 1

Let’s say that this fan just wants hot dogs and sodas. How much would this person have to eat/drink?

If the fan drank one soda for each hot dog consumed, he/she would have 4 of each (this would put the total value of food consumed at $32). Most likely though,  the fan would eat more hot dogs than sodas drank. In this case the fan would have to eat 5 hot dogs and drink 3 sodas (or 6 dogs and at least 1 soda). 

When I was interning with the Twin City Stars Baseball Team, I was offered to free hot dogs and beverages. I maxed out at 6 hot dogs in one day, but those were of the standard size. With that in mind, I’m a pretty average eater portions-wise. So, it is concievable that a big eater could take in 6 foot longs and a soda.

Example 2

Let’s say this particular fan wants to get a little bit of everything. The fan orders one of “everything free” (note that beer, ice cream, and cotton candy is still sold at regular prices). This fan would recieve 1 hot dog, 1 nacho, 1 bag of peanuts, 1 popcorn, and 1 soda. This totals out to only $18. So, in order to get his/her money’s worth, this fan would have to get a second helping of everything. This is pretty absurd and most people couldn’t finish off the first round.

With these examples in mind, it looks like the $40 all-you-can-eat deal is one that only the biggest of eaters should try. Most people would be better suited buying a regular ticket and paying for each concession purchase.

The President or Knights of Prosperity

As you already know, I’m digging the new tv show “Knights of Prosperity.” The KOP airs on ABC on Wed. nights at 9 PM. So, naturally, I was excited to see if the follow up episode held up as well as the pilot. I clicked on over to TVguide.com to see what the synopsis for tonight’s show would be…but I couldn’t find it.

It turns out that President Bush has decided to make another ill-advised move and do a speech from 9 Pm until 9:30 PM (The whole send 20,000 more soldiers to Iraq thing isn’t much better, but I’ll leave that debate to someone who would actually know what they are talking about). This speech means that any show on the big channels (Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.) will not be shown tonight.

I, for one, could care less about what Mr. Prez has to say (I’m going to hear/read about it on the radio/TV/internet on the next anyway). So, why does he have to come on and talk right in the middle of Primetime? Couldn’t this speech take place earlier (like say dinner-time [6 PM])? That way we would hear what is up and we wouldn’t miss out on the good TV programming.

Given the choice, Presidential speech or really good TV show, which one would you choose?

Why doesn’t some candidate add this to his campaign in 2008?

“Read my lips. No Presidential speeches during primetime television.” (The crowd erupts into cheer).

I know that candidate would get my vote (unless it was a Republican or John Kerry).

By the way did you hear that John Kerry is planning on throwing his hat into the ring for the Democratic election?

I’m glad I’m an independant (mostly Libertarian, if you must know).

P.S. This is probably my first and last political blog. So, enjoy!

Children of Men Review

I went to see Children of Men over the weekend. From the trailers, it looked like it would be an imaginative what if sci-fi movie that would push your ideologies into a new realm. The reviewers seemed to unanimously like the movie. So, I figured this should be something worth checking out. It turns out I was kind of wrong.

The movie shows what the world would be like if humans were to lose the ability to procreate (in the movie the youngest person alive is 18 years old). The movie argues that with out the ability to procreate, human life becomes meaningless and therefore worthless. So, the movie is basically a war movie (I tend to not like war movies). Through this war, we find out there is a girl who is pregnant (and can’t act a lick) and we have to get her to the scientist in order to save humanity (a task harder said than done because of the aforementioned war).

The major problem I have with the movie is the concept that if we can’t procreate life is worth nothing. I would think it would be the other way around. If we can’t procreate, we would be doing everything we can to stave off death and our extinction (or at least there’d be a ton of “love making” in attempts to get the job done). But I guess that would be an entirely different movie (kind of Y: The Last Man-ish).

Another issue I had with the movie was the actors/actresses. I already touched on the pregnant girl, but most of them were pretty bad. Clive Owen did a decent job and held up the movie, but I didn’t find him like-able in any way. Julianne Moore seemed to mail in her performance and looked kind of anorexic to boot. She used to be curvaceous, what happened? Michael Caine’s character seemed like the lone sane person, and he’s a damned hippie. He did an okay job, but he just doesn’t fit the role of a hippie in my opinion. He seems too straight laced to pull it off here.

That last issue is with the gratuitous gore in the movie. Beacuse of the aforementioned war being waged, we see a lot of people getting mamed and killed. While it’s not quite as bad as Black Hawk Down (you remember the leg vein scene [how could you forget? I'm scarred for life with that one]) but it is still very bad and very realistic.

So, with all the problems and stylistic differences, I can’t recommend this movie to anyone. Of course, if the stuff mentioned above sounds good to you (I know a lot of people liked Sin City, so there’s probably people who’ll like this movie too) feel free to check it out yourself.

Fantastic Four 2, The Librarian, and Lindsey Lohan

I’ve actually got a few topics to talk about today. I’ll be hyping an upcoming movie, reviewing a couple older movies, and talking about a celebrity (did I actually say that last part? Yikes, what’s happening to me?).

I went and saw A Night at the Museum not too long ago. While in the theater Patti and I were doing the traditional “Guess the Trailers Game.” We both went cheap and said one’s that our friend told us were on the movie when she saw it. Anyway, the trailers start up and we both get ours. Then they throw out the Spiderman 3 trailer (man does this movie look bad – as in not good). After that, I get surprised with the Fantastic Four 2 trailer (Fantastic Four 2 is almost as bad as Rainbow Six 3).

I’ve never seen the first Fantastic Four movie, but I’m going to see the second movie in the theater. Over the past few months, I decided to start getting into “graphic novels” or “tradepaperbacks” (depending on how technical/geeky you want to be). The first one I read was called “Marvels.” It basically follows the biggest events in the Marvel Universe from the perspective of an ordinary non-powered, non-hero man. It’s a good read and worth checking out if you haven’t already. Anyway, one of the big events is of course the Silver Surfer coming to Earth and his interaction with the Fantastic Four. I thought it was a pretty good storyline, but I thought the end resolution was pretty weak. Well, it turns out that this is probably the same storyline that is going to be used in the new Fantastic Four movie. So, that has me partially hyped. But then I saw the trailer. I dug the hell out of that trailer. It was the best trailer shown before the Night at the Museum. So, now I am officially hyped up and ready to see the movie.

While talking about movies, I just realized today that I didn’t really talk about The Librarian (you know, that made for tv movie on TNT). I didn’t watch the original when it first came out because I figured it was just another bad Indiana Jones knock-off. So, I hear that the sequel is coming out and I decide, “What the heck? I’ll give it a chance.” I tune in and I realize that while it is a little cheesy (bad special effects) the story is involving and there is a great deal of humor in it. So, naturally, I dig the hell out of it (seeing as though I like some action, but comedy is my favorite movie genre). Then I go back and watch the original one. It is just as good and now I’m anxiously awaiting a third (they have yet to confirm that a third one is coming out, but they should). So, if you get the chance, I recommend you check it out.

My award for idiot of the day goes to Lindsey Lohan. Congratulations, you are officially insanely idiotic. Reason for this award: Lindsey has an appendectomy one night and the next night she is out “partying.” (Partying is Hollywoodese for getting drunker than your Step-Father on St. Patrick’s Day).

There you have it, the first and hopefully last time I waste breath (or skin cells on my fingers because I’m typing not talking [unless I am in a shitty romantic comedy movie where I need to say everything I'm typing out loud as I'm typing it. But last I checked, I'm not]) talking about a random celebrity.